Social network – MindShifthttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift
KQED Public Media for Northern CATue, 26 Sep 2017 16:24:02 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2KQED Public Media for Northern CASocial network – MindShiftKQED Public Media for Northern CAMindShiftSocial network – MindShifthttps://u.s.kqed.net/2016/08/25/MindShiftiTunegraphic1400x1400.pnghttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift
88007858Moms Of Teens Can Benefit From Social Support, Just Like New Momshttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2017/07/18/moms-of-teens-can-benefit-from-social-support-just-like-new-moms/
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2017/07/18/moms-of-teens-can-benefit-from-social-support-just-like-new-moms/#respondTue, 18 Jul 2017 12:50:12 +0000https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=48724Raising children is a task that requires extensive “on-the-job” training, which is why many women rely on new moms groups for parenting support and guidance. Often, however, as the kids get older, the mothers’ friendships fall by the wayside.

Now, new research indicates that social support isn’t just valuable for mothers of young children, it’s beneficial for moms of teens, too.

The study, published this spring in the journal Family Process, suggests that these support networks may help mothers develop closer relationships with their teens.

“Having someone to talk to about your children is essential for maintaining positive parent-child relationships,” says Melissa Lippold, an assistant professor of social work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and lead author of the study. “However, this type of social support impacts parenting behaviors for mothers and fathers differently.”

The study includes data from 636 rural, two-parent families who completed a series of questionnaires and in-person interviews with the researchers. They found that for moms only, social support plays a significant role in how they parent their teens, especially when they feel overwhelmed and out of control in their lives.

“When these women lean on others, such as friends and co-workers, they are more likely to maintain warm relationships with their kids,” says Lippold. “I think mothers are more socialized than fathers to seek emotional support from relationships when they struggle. It’s possible that when moms confide in others, they feel calmer, which helps them maintain closeness with their children.”

While the early years of parenting are physically demanding, the teen years can be emotionally taxing. Mothers often find themselves in a tug-of-war, because as children start letting go, they want to hold on. Teens often believe they’re more capable of making adult-like decisions than they actually are, and often aren’t keen when parents point out their limitations.

Julie Burton, 50, a mother of four children in Minnetonka, Minn., grappled to raise her two eldest, now ages 22 and 20.

“Journeying through the teen years with my older two children felt like riding a road bike down a rocky terrain,” she says. “I often felt ill-equipped to cope with their moodiness and requests for greater autonomy. As hard as we tried, my husband and I were not always on the same page about how much freedom to give our kids.”

Jodi J. De Luca, a clinical psychologist in Erie, Colo., believes that mothers and fathers transition through the teen years differently.

“Mothers often fear rejection from their kids, which can make setting limits challenging,” she says. “As moms, we want respect from our children, but we also strive to please them. This combination is very tricky and can trigger feelings of insecurity. Fathers don’t always understand how emotional this can be.”

De Luca thinks we need more open conversations, normalizing the hardships that arise during the adolescent part of the parenting cycle.

“Our culture expects new moms to struggle, but we forget that these stressors don’t disappear as children grow older. Too often we see motherhood as a linear process when it’s not,” she says.

While having trustworthy friends to talk with can help, finding these networks can be tricky. During early motherhood, women disclose their parenting problems with ease, but it’s often harder to discuss the difficulties of raising teens.

During her kids’ teenage years, Burton felt even more isolated than she did when they were younger. Longing to connect with other moms and curious about their parenting trials, she interviewed 400 mothers, summarizing their stories in her book, The Self-Care Solution: A Modern Mother’s Must-Have Guide to Health and Well-Being.

Through the interviews, Burton learned personal details about other moms’ conflicts with helicopter parenting, prioritizing self-care and boundary setting. Women shared how they scrutinized their own parenting decisions, worrying that the wrong choices might scar their children for life.

“I also found that many moms feel ashamed to talk about their ‘imperfect’ adolescents because they assume that other parents have perfect kids,” she says.

When Cindy Goodman, 52, a mother of three in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Raquel Alderman, 49, a mother of two in Coral Springs, Fla., were faced with their children hitting the teen years, they found minimal resources to help them through the transition.

“There are so many mommy blogs and parenting magazines for parents of young children, but not as much information for mothers of teens,” says Goodman.

So Goodman and Alderman started their own blog, “Raising Teens,” with the aim of expanding their support network and becoming “‘virtual girlfriends’ that other women could learn from, too,” says Goodman.

“We receive a lot of feedback from parents and, surprisingly, from teens, too. They chime in, sharing their feelings about moms who snoop and their reasons for sneaking out of the house,” she says.

Burton advises mothers of teens to develop closer relationships by trying new activities, such as community volunteering, joining a local exercise class or connecting with other moms online. She offers writing classes in her community where women can gather and share their narratives in a safe and supportive space.

“Finding supportive networks where mothers feel safe to talk about their parenting concerns is crucial,” says Lippold, the study’s author. “Teens who have close relationships with their parents are more likely to ask them for advice and seek comfort from them when they’re in stressful situations.”

Juli Fraga is a psychologist and writer in San Francisco. You can find her on Twitter @dr_fraga.

Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2017/07/18/moms-of-teens-can-benefit-from-social-support-just-like-new-moms/feed/048724How Young is Too Young for Kids to Start Social Networking?https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/03/24/how-young-is-too-young-for-kids-to-start-social-networking/
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/03/24/how-young-is-too-young-for-kids-to-start-social-networking/#commentsThu, 24 Mar 2011 17:49:34 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=9721Continue reading How Young is Too Young for Kids to Start Social Networking?→]]>

What’s the appropriate age to start logging onto social networking sites? According to the Terms of Service for Facebook, at least, the answer is 13.

But that doesn’t stop thousands of younger children from signing up. According to Facebook’s chief privacy adviser Mozelle Thompson, Facebook removes about 20,000 users a day who are underage.

Should parents allow their under-13 kids to sign up on Facebook?

That figure was revealed during testimony to the Australian parliament’s cyber-safety committee, reports The Daily Telegraph. Australia is considering legislation that would require teens to get parental permission before joining Facebook.

As it stands, Facebook policy simply recommends that minors 13 or older get their parents’ permission. Those younger than 13 are forbidden outright. But as Thompson testified: “There are people who lie. There are people who are under 13 [accessing Facebook].”

That age cut-off isn’t arbitrary. It keeps Facebook in line with COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires that Internet sites that allow those under 13 to join secure parental permission.

But as a recent New York Times article quipped, “the fake ID has gone digital, and spread to elementary school.” That story suggests that the 20,000 youngsters booted from Facebook daily are really just the tip of the iceberg, citing research from the web analysis company Comscore, that over 3.6 million of Facebook’s 153 million monthly visitors from the U.S. are under age.

Togetherville stresses the importance of teaching children about safety online by introducing them to a social networking site where their parents can monitor their interactions and control who they “friend.” The idea addresses concerns about younger children and teens on Facebook — fears that they’ll be preyed upon or they’ll misbehave.

But will kids be interested in Togetherville or Club Penguin when their friends and family are on Facebook? Should parents be complicit in signing up their under-13 kids on Facebook? Some feel strongly that parents should set the right example for digital citizenship by following set rules and guidelines, and those who feel that allowing kids to navigate the social networking world will provide valuable lessons through practice.

We’d love to hear thoughts from parents and educators about their approach.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/03/24/how-young-is-too-young-for-kids-to-start-social-networking/feed/89721children_onlineDo Social Networking Sites Work for Learning?https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/11/29/do-social-networking-sites-work-for-learning/
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/11/29/do-social-networking-sites-work-for-learning/#respondMon, 29 Nov 2010 22:14:44 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=4563Continue reading Do Social Networking Sites Work for Learning?→]]>

“Our mission is to make the world one big study group,” says Phil Hill, chief executive of OpenStudy, a social-learning site that started as a project of Emory University and Georgia Tech.

The quote is in a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, which lists up-and-coming sites that combine social networking and learning.

Some questions to think about in this vein: Do students prefer to share class notes online? Is it ethical to sell notes to classmates? Are professors subjecting themselves to unfettered criticism online? And do students actually use social networking sites to learn?

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/11/29/do-social-networking-sites-work-for-learning/feed/04563What Does the Public Know About You?https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/11/26/what-does-the-public-know-about-you/
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/11/26/what-does-the-public-know-about-you/#commentsFri, 26 Nov 2010 23:00:31 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=522Continue reading What Does the Public Know About You?→]]>Earlier this year, Katie Stansberry conducted an experiment in the social media class she teaches at the University of Oregon. Here’s her first-person account.

Every term I struggle with a conversation I have with my students at the start of the class. Because I teach about social media, I have a frank discussion with my undergraduate students about protecting their reputation. This term, I did something a little different.

I have only 17 students in my class, so the weekend before the first day of class I took a few hours and did a little online research. I spent about 10 minutes per student, digging through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other Web resources to find out what I could about their online identities. I took that information and put together a presentation introducing the class to their fellow students based solely on the facts that I could find online.

When I announced that instead of a typical get-to-know-you activity, I was going to show them what a future employer might find if they were checking them out as part of a hiring decision there were some nervous murmurs. However, as we went through the slides and discussed each student’s personal brand there were lots of good-natured laughs and some rueful grins. Several students learned that photos and comments they had thought were private were actually accessible to the public.

At the close of the exercise I invited the students to take 10 minutes to find out everything they could about me by surfing the Web. To my surprise, several students dug up an old Friendster profile that I had assumed was wiped out. My brilliant lesson turned out to be a true teaching moment. As someone who specializes in social media and reputation management I thought I had a pretty secure handle on my online brand. But even I need to stay on top of my social media presence.

I resolve to Google myself regularly, delete outdated profiles and develop a cohesive online personal brand. I may be the social media professor, but my students taught me a big lesson.

We can’t avoid dipping into social media any more than we can avoid Googling questions. But we can circumvent unfortunate and unintended consequences when it comes to navigating the social media world.

ESchoolNews rounds up 11 ways for the education community to embrace the best of social media, and to tread carefully along the way.

Some highlights:

Develop guidelines and stick to them.

Don’t connect personally with students.

Parents are not personal “friends.”

Don’t share private information.

Recognize you represent your school or organization

Educators: Does your school have a policy? Do you abide by it? What would you change about the policy, if you could? Share your thoughts.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/10/06/11-tips-on-avoiding-social-networking-gaffes/feed/02595Screen shot 2010-10-06 at 12.07.20 PMA New Facebook-Like Network for Teachershttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/09/23/a-new-facebook-for-california-teachers/
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/09/23/a-new-facebook-for-california-teachers/#respondThu, 23 Sep 2010 20:59:39 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=2052Continue reading A New Facebook-Like Network for Teachers→]]>I wanted to share this press release that just arrived in my inbox from State Schools Chief Jack O’Connell:

New Online Forum for Teachers to Collaborate, Innovate, and Improve Student Achievement Web Tool will Help Teachers Close the Achievement Gap

A new Web 2.0 tool designed to encourage teacher collaboration and innovation called Brokers of Expertise: http://www.myboe.org/.
“The Brokers of Expertise Web site is like Facebook for teachers,” O’Connell said. “Educators can use this site to innovate and collaborate. Through this virtual social network teachers may share and learn about strategies that improve student achievement. Through the Broker’s Web site, we will create a community of newly credentialed and experienced teachers who are empowered to further their own professional development and growth.

This exciting tool is the latest in our arsenal to narrow the pernicious achievement gap that currently leaves too many students unprepared for success in the hypercompetitive global economy.”
Brokers of Expertise is a dynamic Web site that allows educators to search for,and follow colleagues across the state who have had success in teaching specific strands of California’s content standards, or are working with similar types of students, and thus make their own experience in the classroom more effective.

Teachers can use the site to form customized online groups to share experiences and challenges they face in the classroom and collaborate on ways to improve instruction. Users can share instructional practices through links, video, pictures, or documents that can make it easier for other teachers to replicate innovation in their own classrooms. The Web site also lists where each resource came from and provides a blog where educators may share their thoughts on the resource’s effectiveness.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/09/23/a-new-facebook-for-california-teachers/feed/02052874595861-300×225How to Help Kids Be Safe and Comfortable With Social Mediahttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/09/21/help-kids-be-safe-and-comfortable-with-social-media/
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/09/21/help-kids-be-safe-and-comfortable-with-social-media/#respondTue, 21 Sep 2010 18:59:18 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=1934Continue reading How to Help Kids Be Safe and Comfortable With Social Media→]]>“Shutting them off is wrong,” said Mandeep Dhillon, CEO and Co-Founder of Togetherville, a social network for kids, at the “Learning in a Digital Age” conference, referring to blocking kids from the Internet in order to keep them safe.

“The more transparency we have, the easier we can engage them to help make them safe and the easier to manage the people around them,” he said. “It’s a fundamental shift from the way we’ve been doing things. In the past, we built a notion of comfort around anonymity in chat rooms, but Facebook changed the way people think about verifiable conversations. So with safety and transparency, we can actually have verifiable conversations. Parents can create a network of people that both kids and parents know. It’s essential to surround kids online with people they know.”

Extending the thought was Catherine Teitelbaum, Director of Child Safety and Product Policy at Yahoo:

“We’re teaching young citizens how to do well and be safe out in the world. But that definition of ‘out in the world’ has to shift. They have to have more responsibility and more freedom — with guidance — sp they know how to navigate what’s next.”

Sarah DeWitt, Vice President of PBS Kids Interactive added:

“Safety has to go hand in hand with media literacy. We have to teach them in a safe, fun way, as opposed to scaring them.”

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/09/21/help-kids-be-safe-and-comfortable-with-social-media/feed/01934photoDOE: Use Social Networks to Find Best Digital Textbook Resourceshttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/09/21/doe-use-social-networks-to-find-best-digital-textbook-resources/
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2010/09/21/doe-use-social-networks-to-find-best-digital-textbook-resources/#respondTue, 21 Sep 2010 18:39:27 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=1925Continue reading DOE: Use Social Networks to Find Best Digital Textbook Resources→]]>When it comes to digital interactive textbooks, the “highest quality resources are important,” said the DOE’s Karen Cator. “We’re trying to use the power of the masses to push the best possible resources out there to bubble up.”

“There are entire new ways of looking at textbook adoption,” she said. “It’s very important to find new ways of thinking through the vetting process, and social networks give us incredible opportunities to do that.”

As federal officials convene this week to find ways to prevent online bullying, parents can start taking action at home to help their kids take control of their digital worlds.

A New York Times article today advises parents to closely monitor all the social networks they belong to and be savvy about “friends” they accept into their network. Most of these networks allow users to delete negative comments, videos, and photos, and to block them from their accounts.

Call the cops when necessary. When threats get out of control, it’s time to involve the authorities.

MORE TOOLS ONLINE

The web is full of useful resources on how to deal with cyber-bullying issues.

Stop Bullying. According to the site, a survey of 13-18 year-olds revealed that 15% had been cyberbullied online,10% had been cyberbullied by cell phone, while 7% said they had cyberbullied another person online, and 5% had cyberbullied another person by cell phone. The site features webisodes for parents and kids on how to deal with bullying.

Committee for Children. Here, you can watch videos of middle school programs being taught in the classroom and interviews with kids about their tactics.

Cyberbully 411. This one is aimed at teens who are being bullied, gives them a space to share their stories, and ideas for how to talk to their parents.

Bullying.org. Multitudes of resources here, but an especially great round of links for teachers here.